Our attention has been drawn to a false and misleading online publication, unfortunately credited to Chief Chikwe Udensi, having as caption,” N2.2 billion monthly settlement of APGA Leadership with Abia Money: Emergence of Ichita vindicates Chikwe Udensi”, through which the promoter deliberately deployed canard and mendacity to attempt to denigrate and disparage the person of Prof Gregory Ibe, the Abia state candidate of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) for 2023 general elections, and sought to generously award some modicum of validity to his dwindling political profile, while aiming to misinform and thereby deceive the public.
Our immediate response to this desperate attempt by Chief Chikwe Udensi, who after coming a distant fourth at the governorship primary election of 29th May 2023 seems to tarry too long at licking his wounds, would have been to maintain silence while focusing on the weightier matter of preparations for the 2023 general elections, but for the purpose of setting the records right, we hereby state as follows;
1. That Prof Gregory Ibe remains the winner of the 29 May Abia state APGA governorship primary election that was conducted by an official delegation from the party headquarters in Abuja, led by Echezona Etiaba, SAN and supervised by INEC.
2.That the said primary election, which was streamed online live and can still be assessed has been adjudged the freest, fairest and most transparent governorship primary election conducted by the party so far.
3.That sequel to the success of the primary election, Prof Gregory Ibe has received the statutory Certificate of Return and subsequently front loaded by the National Working Committee of APGA to INEC as the authentically nominated candidate of the party in Abia state.
4. That contrary to the deluding information contained in false publication, Prof Ibe didn’t enter into any form of agreement, neither before, during or after the said election, to remit the sum of #2.2bn to the leadership of APGA or any other group for that matter.
5. That this apparently baseless, libellous and malicious accusation is at best a figment of the warped imagination of the anonymous author of the article.
6. That Prof Ibe’s motive in offering himself for the job of Abia state governor is to volunteer quality service aimed at transforming the state, leveraging his vast experience as a globally acclaimed technocrat, human capital resource expert, international development consultant and renowned academic, and not to indulge in the ignoble act of ‘sharing’ state funds.
7. That, Chief Udensi, who remains a BOT member of APGA should show leadership and desist from acts reminiscent of the callousness displayed by the wicked mother in the bible, who desired King Solomon to deploy the sword in dividing and sharing her neighbour’s living child into two parts just because she lost hers in the course of the night, out of her own careless disposition.
8. That Abians, and indeed the general public, are once again enjoined to discountenance this baseless accusation and rather remain resolute in their determination to ensure that old things do pass away even as a brand new Abia begins to emerge with Prof Gregory Ibe at the helm of affairs.
ProGIMA-Prof Gregory Ibe Media Associates
